Summary of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of the shaping and processing of food products.
For the industrial production of kebabs, the use of machines specially designed to achieve this result is very well known. Basically, most known machines employ a container of general a parallel-piped shape in which the different layers of meat and/or vegetables are laid on top of each other. The four vertical faces of the container are slotted to allow the passage of cutter blades. The lid and/or the base of the container are pierced to allow the insertion, by automatic or other means, of wooden sticks, usually by means of an appropriate skewering device.
The skewering and cutting devices, as such, may take different forms. For example, the skewering device may be of the type described in patent FR 2535169, which uses a system of the different layers of meat and/or vegetables, or of the type described in European patent 0278879, which uses a system of tubes into which the wooden sticks are inserted.
The cutting device may be of the type described in patent FR 9010227. The operations of skewering, on the one hand, and cutting, on the other, may be carried out at the same station or at different stations. The cutting of the different layers of ready-skewered meat and/or vegetables is of course done in two perpendicular planes, so as to make kebabs. For this purpose, either two cutting devices are set at an angle of 90.degree. to each other to make the two perpendicular cuts in succession, or the machine uses a single cutting station, in which case the container is pivoted through 90.degree. so that the two perpendicular cuts can be made.
From this basic concept for producing kebabs industrially, a number of different solutions have been proposed to automate the whole production process from loading the container to its unloading.
An example of this is the teaching of patent FR 2574252 which describes an installation for the automated manufacture of kebabs. In essence, this installation comprises a certain number of stations arranged in line at regular intervals, in combination with a horizontal conveying device. This horizontal conveying device brings the containers one after the other, in succession, to four workstations, specifically a piercing station, a stick inserting station, a stick driving station in which the sticks are driven into the different layers of meat and/or vegetables, and lastly a cutting station. The method of transfer of the containers past each of the workstations necessitates a large amount of floor space.
This type of machine, in which there is linear transfer of the containers past the various workstations is also found in patent FR 2668895, which also relates to a machine for the preparation of kebabs. This machine comprises, in succession, an entrance station, a skewering station, a cutting station, a station in which the contents of the containers are discharged or demolded, and an empty container unloading station. In this machine, skewering takes place in a horizontal plane by means of a system of prepiercing rods and tubes. The cutting station comprises a plurality of vertically arranged blades that fit into the different slots of the container arranged in a horizontal plane. In addition, at the cutting station, the container is fixed to means capable of pivoting it through 90.degree., in order that the two perpendicular cuts can be made.
As indicated, the transfer of the containers to the various workstations is done in a linear manner. In other words, once again, this technical solution does not provide a compact machine capable of automatic skewering of the kebabs.
The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems in a simple, reliable, efficient and logical manner.
The object of the present invention is to automatically produce kebabs of meat and/or vegetables threaded in particular on wooden sticks, the objective being to integrate within a small and compact space, as opposed to any linear transfer system, a container insertion station, a skewering station, a cutting station and a container unloading station.
To solve this problem, a machine has been devised and developed for the automatic production of kebabs from a container filled with layers of meat and/or vegetables whose side faces are slotted, wherein said machine comprising at least one station for insertion among layers of meat and/or vegetables, a station in which the container is skewered with sticks, a cutting station engaging with the container slots for cutting the skewered layers of meat and/or vegetables, and a station in which the container containing the different skewered and cut layers of meat and/or vegetables are unloaded. The machine of the present invention also includes a supporting member having peripheral arrangements for the loading and centering of at least one container, wherein the supporting member is fixed to a rotary drive means in order to present the container or containers in succession to each of said stations and arranged in a circular manner about said member.
To solve the problem of moving the supporting member that receives the container or containers in a circle past each of the workstations, either the rotary drive shaft of the supporting member is arranged in a vertical plane, or the rotary drive shaft of the supporting member is arranged in a horizontal plane.
Another problem which it is an object of the invention to solve is the working in parallel and continuously to present several containers to each of the workstations. To solve such a problem, the supporting member consists of a carousel of cubical general shape, the two directly opposite faces of which are traversed by the rotary shaft, the other four faces comprising arrangements for the positioning and centering of a container. The various stations for charging, skewering, cutting and unloading are conveniently mounted on a supporting frame and are separated in space in such a way that as the carousel is driven around one quarter of a revolution the same container is brought in succession to each of said stations.
To solve the problem of presenting several containers in succession and simultaneously to each of the different workstations from a rotating supporting member that accommodates the containers, the insertion station is arranged at the bottom of the carousel so as to be in communication with the arrangements for positioning and centering one of the faces of said carousel, the container skewering station is offset by 90.degree. with respect to the charging station so that the sticks are driven in a horizontal plane, the cutting station is located so as to present the cutter blades in a horizontal position, the slots of the container being arranged vertically, and the unloading station is offset by 90.degree. with respect to the insertion station, in an opposite direction to the direction of the skewering station.
Another problem which the invention seeks to solve is how to use only four lids for all the containers. To this end, in the arrangements of each of the faces of the carousel, for the positioning and centering of the containers, the carousel has supporting parts able to receive the lid of the corresponding container, these parts being fixed to means for positioning the lid as required on the open face of the container.
To solve the problem of driving sticks simultaneously into the different layers of meat and/or vegetables, the skewering station comprises a series of tubes arranged in a horizontal plane, in line with holes present in the lid and/or floor of the container, the tubes accommodating the sticks; the assembly of the tubes is attached to a supporting member fixed to means of translational movement for pushing the tubes containing the sticks into the different layers of meat and/or vegetables, after which they withdraw the tubes so that only the sticks are left behind in the different layers of meat and/or vegetables. Advantageously, the tubes are operated in combination with an automatic stick loading system.
To solve the problem of cutting the different layers of ready-skewered meat and/or vegetables in two perpendicular planes in order to make the kebab the cutting station comprises two cutting systems set at an angle of 90.degree. to each other so as to correspond to the two perpendicular adjacent faces of the container, each system having a plurality of blades corresponding to each of the slots of one face of the container, the blades being fixed to movement means to give them a translational movement combined with a pivoting movement.